A high-speed armed drone boat could soon be patrolling the Gulf, protecting oil platforms from devastating attacks, a leading defence company has disclosed.
Travelling at up to 60 knots (111kph) armed with a heavy machinegun and ship arrestor nets, the P38 Aggressor will be among the fastest autonomous boats launched.
Built by BAE Systems, the Aggressor can patrol for 24 hours non-stop using its array of sensors to detect potential threats.
Its key role in the Gulf waters would be to defend oil rigs, ships and renewable energy sites from other unmanned drone or manned attacks including suicide boats.
It can also be placed in a vertical cradle on an oil platform and released in seconds at the pull of a pin, much like lifeboats on the rigs.
The six-tonne boat’s capabilities have attracted the attention of several Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE.
The 14-metre Aggressor can travel up to 650 kilometres if driven at 20 knots, powered by its three Mercury engines.
“A typical scenario would be protecting critical national infrastructure,” Mike Woods, BAE’s chief maritime technologist, told The National. “That’s harbour protection or oilfield protection or renewables protection.”
The prototype on display at the DSEI (Defence Security Equipment International) exhibition in London had been fitted with a ship arrestor.
The twin-barrelled pneumatic system fires a net arrestor into the path of a vessel and acts like a police stinger, bringing it abruptly to a halt within 60 metres by entangling the propeller.
Suicide speedboats have had a devastating impact, most notably on the USS Cole missile destroyer in 2000 in a strike that killed 17 American sailors.
With the growing use of unmanned naval drones by Ukraine against Russian warships or the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to the mainland, the demand for unmanned guard vessels will inevitably increase.
“There is a deterrent effect of just being visible on patrol but it also has a significant rapid-response capability, especially in a steep cradle on a rig,” Mr Woods said. “You just pull the pin and this can get out there faster than you can crew-up a manned boat.”
BAE has been developing sea drones for almost a decade and Mr Woods asked “at what point do we decide to make that break from manned boats?”
The Aggressor can also be used in collaboration with human forces for “maritime interdiction”, for example detecting people traffickers or drug runners.
The unmanned boat can also be launched from warships for either extra protection or reconnaissance. There is also understood to be interest in them from special forces.
The basic glass fibre solid infrastructure, with a beam across the top, allows a significant amount of surveillance equipment and other sensitive devices weighing up to 1.5 tonnes to be carried on-board.
The Gulf version would likely be mounted with a .50 calibre machinegun on the front with the ship arrestor nets on the side.
“That gives you maximum utility and under international law the weapons system has a human in the loop,” said Mr Woods. “The weapon will automatically follow a target using optical tracking and is fully stabilised, meaning that even at high speed and in rough seas we can triple the engagement range to any of our competitors.”
The engineer added that BAE planned to make their first sales to a Gulf country next year. “We have people that have been awaiting this development and who are coming to see it in the flesh at DSEI.”
Defence and Security Equipment International fair - in pictures
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From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
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How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Director: Romany Saad
Starring: Mirfat Amin, Boumi Fouad and Tariq Al Ibyari
Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
Honeymoonish
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: AF Afham, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Emirates Fillies Classic – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Ghallieah, Sebastien Martino, Jean-Claude Pecout
6.30pm: Emirates Colts Classic – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Yas Xmnsor, Saif Al Balushi, Khalifa Al Neyadi
7pm: The President’s Cup – Group 1 (PA) Dh2,500,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Somoud, Adrie de Vries, Jean de Roualle
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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Captain Marvel
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
